Wednesday, March 19, 2008

...and then there are days like this....



Santa Claus.

The Easter Bunny.

The Tooth Fairy.

I totally bought into the whole "share the mythology and fun with your kid" thing. We had a lot of fun with it. But now she's seven, and the kids on the bus today told her none of these beautiful icons existed. Made her cry. She's mad at them for taking away her gentle heroes and she's mad at me for introducing them to begin with.

I tried the "Santa and the Easter Bunny don't exist for Hannah Larsen because she doesn't believe in them" tack. Nothing doin'. I tried the "Santa and the Easter Bunny are the spirits of all that is good and beautiful about these holidays and they are the spirit of love".

She looked me straight in the eye and said "When I got presents from Santa, did they really come from you?" I answered, "What do you think?"

She paused.

"I think you're dodging".

Maybe I was wrong to take my double Virgo, rules maven Aspy kid and perpetrate a beautiful lie on her...

Well, I guess we'll get to have that talk about how much we love our imaginary friends, even when inside, we know they're imaginary. I was just hoping for another year of magic.

7 comments:

Mississippi Songbird said...

When she gets to be a TWEEN, she'll adore the Easter bunny..:lol: The line at the store was full of pre-teen girl,wanting their picture taken.. lol
Bunches of hugs..

( Maybe it reminds them of Happy Bunny).

bhd said...

Oops. Sorry to hear this. I remember when I found out - I was listening to my folks having a party downstairs. I heard Mom say where she'd bought one of my presents. It kinda made sense to me at the time, but I found out in private. Maybe that's what's bugging her the most.

winter said...

That's sad.

I remember the day I figured out there was no Santa Claus. (We never did the Easter Bunny, and I'm not sure why.) I cried and promised not to tell my little brother because I didn't want him to be as sad as I was. Not sure how he figured it out when his time came.

*hug*

Mike Carter said...

I don't remember when I first learned jolly ole' St. Nick wasn't real, but it didn't matter for many more years. I do remember the first christmas when I got up early, checked and 'he' hadn't come - so I went back to bed :-).

The way I've put it to my kids, is that if they say he doesn't exist, then he doesn't come any more, and even though there isn't much in the stockings now (anymore it is usually just some candy and a DVD) (my youngest is 13, oldest is 20), they keep their mouths shut.

ptooey said...

I'm pretty sure our oldest (8) has had it figured out for quite some time, but keeps her mouth shut because she likes presents. It's only a matter of time with the 5 year old, as she's somewhat quicker on the uptake.

Meh. The kids enjoy it. What ya gonna do? They all find out, eventually. I don't think it's really all that harmful.

I wonder why I don't remember when I found out...

rebecca said...

i was precocious. santa and mommy had the same handwriting on the gift tags. i was 5.

still...i wished you had another year or two of that magic.

Mermaid Melanie said...

enlightening information. I don't remember when I found out but we got to keep the magic going longer because we had a "younger sister".

Poor dear.